This invention is directed to a shooting guide which assists a beginning pool player in correctly directing a cue ball toward an object ball such that the object ball is deposited into a pocket of a pool table.
In shooting pool it is the object to hit a cue ball with a cue propelling the cue ball toward an object ball such that after the collision of the cue ball and the object ball, the object ball is propelled into a pocket on the pool table. This process can be further complicated in what is called a combination shot wherein the cue ball strikes a first object ball and the first object ball is then used to propel a second object ball. As a pool player gets more sophisticated and obtains skill in playing pool, combination shots involving even more object balls can be made.
Because the balls are round, to the untrained player, when one ball hits another they seemingly move in an unpredictable manner. To gain proficiency in playing pool the unskilled player must play many games before he or she achieves the intuitive feeling of where to hit the cue ball against the object ball in order to propel the object ball in the direction desired. This process can be very frustrating and indeed can actually discourage a person from playing the game. To complicate matters, when the cue ball is struck with a cue, depending upon where the cue strikes the cue ball, the cue ball can in addition to being propelled forward, also be given a spinning motion. Thus if the cue strikes the cue ball at a point which is above the horizontal axis of the center of the cue ball, the cue ball will be given "top spin" which will cause the cue ball to spin in a direction away from the player. If the cue ball is struck below the horizontal axis the cue ball is given "draw" which will cause the cue ball to spin, in a relative way, back toward the player. If the cue ball is struck either to the right or left of the vertical axis of the center of the cue ball, the cue ball is given right or left "english" and is sent spinning like a top with either a right hand or left hand spin.
Certain laws of physics define the direction that a second spherical object will take when struck with a first spherical object. At the precise moment of impact the second sphere or ball will move off in a direction that follows the line which traverses through the center of both the first and second balls and additionally include the point wherein the first and second balls contact, i.e. the point where they are tangent to one another. This is of course neglecting any spin imparted to the second ball by the first ball, if the first ball is spinning. Thus while to an unskilled player there may seem to be no rhyme or reason as to the direction the object ball will travel when struck by a cue ball, there is in fact physical laws which govern this direction and which can be predicted.